Crosby. Stills & Nash
May 19, 2013
Charlotte, NC
Ovens Auditorium
Concert Review by Joseph Hett

Crosby, Stills & Nash – Create Serene Night – In Charlotte

David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash made a stop in Charlotte, NC on Sunday evening at the sold-out Ovens Auditorium. They brought their new and old songs for an “Evening With” format.

It was a simple stage set-up with their interlocking CSN logo hanging in the background. The backing band included James Raymond, Crosby’s son, on keyboards.

Crosby, Stills & Nash came out and started with “Carry On/Questions.” They then went into “Marrakesh Express,” after Crosby said he wasn’t ready for his song yet.

After the switch-up, they said the setlist is actually a trick they play on their crew by switching songs up.

Crosby then got back on track with “Long Time Gone,” and they continued with “Just A Song Before I Go.”

Stills got a chance to shine on lead vocals with the 1982 classic “Southern Cross.” Stills was also a master on the guitar the whole night and had several chances to showcase his skills.

There was constant comedic banter between Crosby and Nash, with Nash joking about Crosby’s drug use throughout the years. Nash also rattled off a bunch of page numbers from his new memoir, which comes out later this year, which referenced Crosby’s drug usage.

They closed out the first set with “Teach Your Children,” with an audience sing-along, and then went into an intermission.

CSN came back out with “Helplessly Hoping” and “In Your Name,” a song Nash wrote about the preacher who burned the Quran in Florida a few years ago.

Stills stood on the stage by himself and said, “So it’s my turn to speak now?” Since the other two were going at each other all night. He then played his solo song “Treetop Flyer.” It was a masterful performance of his picking ability.

During a break, Crosby pulled his earpiece out and jokingly revealed to the audience that this whole time he had been listening to ZZ Top.

They continued on with “Guinnevere” and the newer Nash song “Burning For The Buddha,” which details the plight of Tibetan monks setting themselves on fire to protest China’s human rights conditions.

Crosby wasn’t done being a jokester yet. During a break, a female audience member yelled “I love you David” and Crosby replied, “If I was in my younger days, I would have called back.” And the audience erupted in laughter.

The set was closed out with the classics “Our House,” “Almost Cut My Hair” and “Wooden Ships.”

For the encore, they came out and played “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” and bowed to a standing ovation.

The average age of the three members is 70, and they performed like it was still 1969. There were a few hits left out, but they made up for it by playing nearly three hours. Their vocal harmony is still as good as it was over 40 years ago, it blended together to create their signature CSN sound for the capacity crowd in Charlotte.